delvingvsDenningTell them apart

Quick tell: delving is a verb, Denning is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“delving” is a verb and “Denning” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,881
“delving” frequency rank
#42,086
“Denning” frequency rank
79967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delving Denning
Definition present participle and gerund of delve A surname.

Letter map: delving vs Denning

Shared letters muted; letters that set delving and Denning apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. delving and Denning follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
delving
7 ch
Denning

Part-of-speech tell for delving / Denning

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: delving is averb and Denninganame. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delving is recorded at frequency rank #37,881, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdɛlvɪŋ/. Denning is at rank #42,086, tagged as aname.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 79967, this pair ranks #20,882 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of delving vs Denning

Shared letters: degin. Private to "delving": lv. Private to "Denning": -.

"delving" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "Denning" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delving ← ddelving · delivng · dellving · delvign · delvingg · delvinng · delvnig · delvving
  • Denning ← ddenning · dening · deninng · dennign · denningg · denninng · dennnig · dnening

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "delving" and "Denning" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delving" is a verb and "Denning" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "delving" vs "Denning" - which ranks higher?
"delving" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,881 in our English list, against #42,086 for "Denning". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "delving" and "Denning". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "delving" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Denning" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,882 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delving" and "Denning" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deeming vs Denning". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #20,882 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list